If you were hoping to see Garth Brooks during the last leg of his 2021 stadium tour, you’re out of luck.
“The Dance” singer announced that he would be canceling the last four remaining tour dates on his 2021 calendar. This also includes the rescheduled Nashville show he was going to make up after it was canceled due to rain in July.
Brooks is canceling the tour dates as COVID-19 numbers are drastically increasing all over the country.
Garth Brooks Cancels Tour Due to COVID-19 Numbers
In Nashville, Tennessee, for example, there has been a huge increase. According to the Tennessean, there were more than 1,000 Nashville students and teachers quarantined after just the first week of school.
Garth Brooks is responding to this crisis and altering his plans. He will no longer appear in Cincinnati, Ohio on September 18, Charlotte, North Carolina on September 25, Baltimore, Maryland on October 2, and Boston, Massachusetts on October 9.
Ticketmaster will be sending out refunds automatically. So, if you purchased one of these tickets, you won’t have to do anything to get your money back.
“I have asked the wonderful cities of Cincinnati and Charlotte to wait too long and I don’t want to now do that same thing to the great folks in Boston and Baltimore. As far as Nashville, we are looking for a make-up date from the July rain out and though this is not COVID related, to make them wait makes me sad, as well. So, it is with a heavy heart we announce the decision to cancel all 5 shows but with a hopeful heart, we will reschedule and start over when this wave seems to be behind us,” Garth Brooks said in a statement on his website.
It’s unclear when Brooks will be back on the road to finish out his tour in the future. His team apparently wants to aim for 2021, but, otherwise, concert dates are being looked at for 2022.
The star went on to say that his biggest priority is “making sure the environment these people are trading their time and money to put themselves into is not only the best experience ever, but also the safest one we can provide.”
Brooks and Other Artists Choose to Cancel
According to the CDC guidelines as of August 16, the seven-day moving average for COVID-19 cases increased by 19.9%. We are following similar rates to back in January and early February.
Garth Brooks may start a trend of concert cancellations. Live Nation is also making a new mandate that requires each person to have a COVID-19 vaccination or a negative test prior to entry starting on October 4.
Other recent cancellations include Korn, Stevie Nicks, Counting Crows, Limp Bizkit, Michael Bublé, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and Fall Out Boy. For the last few months, it has been open season on concert season, however, with rising cases, this may change.
One of the biggest crowds this summer was for Lollapalooza in Chicago, which attracted around 350,000 guests.
